The Reunion
by TheVideoGamer
Summary: Shadow misses Maria so much, he's starting to lose his mind. Literally. It's only a matter of time before he's to become a completely soul-less shell, but when he gets captured by a mysterious fleet of humans and finds the one he's been missing for nearly his entire life, he can't feel more complete. Unfortunately, the happiness doesn't last long. Violence and ShadMaria.
1. Anger and Nostalgia

The Reunion

Shadow wondered. He wondered what life would be like with Maria. Ever since she was killed, _murdered_ by those ignorant soldiers, Shadow felt as if a part of himself had died along with her. Now, every happy moment, every milestone, every single memory, had a sort of hollowness to it that always hung in the back of his mind. Nothing was right anymore. As he wandered through all of these thoughts, his mind was too clouded to see the tree that he walked right into. He staggered backwards into the tall, swaying grass and cursed loudly as he hit the ground.

He stood up and admired the trees that engulfed him on all sides. He was in a hollow in the middle of a forest near Station Square. Tall wildflowers of purple, pink, blue, and white danced with the grass at his waist. It was like a dream, so why couldn't he be happy? It wasn't fair. He knew he should be grateful that Maria gave her life for his, but why did she have to do it? If Shadow was created to aid mankind at all costs, why couldn't he have saved the only human that meant anything to him at all?

He punched the tree and it creaked and groaned against his amazing force. "I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form, created by Gerald Robotnik, and yet I can't save a twelve-year-old girl!" He punched the tree again and it tilted as the roots fought against the black hedgehog. "I'm an embarressment!" With a final punch, the tree came crashing to the ground with a huge moan and a cloud of uprooted dirt. Shadow slowly inhaled and exhaled, not to catch his breath, but to calm himself down. Controlling anger had never been a stronghold of his. "I have to keep this off my mind." He admitted to himself as he activated his jet-soled shoes. In one swift movement, he was gone, leaving nothing in his place but the dead, mangled body of an oak tree.

"Hey, Buddy! Whatsup?" Was the first thing Shadow heard when he reached the bustling sidewalk of the square.

"Ugh. What do you want, Blue Hedgehog?"

"Hey, hey! I was just wondering what was happening in your life! Man, can't you take a joke, Faker?"

"Faker?" Shadow mumbled, "I think you're the fake hedgehog around here! You're not even good enough to be my fake..."

"Ah, let's cut the trash talk, I'm not in the mood for it." Sonic responded with a sly smile, "So, you never answered my question. How're ya doin'?" Sonic asked again.

"I don't have time for this. Run while you still can, Hedgehog." Shadow growled.

"Okay, alright. I get it." Sonic said jokingly, his hands up in the air, "I'll leave you alone. you must have _so_ much to do. Heh-heh."

"I swear, one of these days..." Shadow threatened, "I will hurt you so badly..." Sonic looked unconvinced, but now, irritation began to grow in his eyes.

"What? You gonna keep talkin' trash, or do ya wanna go?"

"THAT'S IT!" Shadow screamed at the top of his lungs, "YOU'RE DEAD!" He reached for his inhibitor rings as Sonic readied himself into a battle stance.

_Click!_ _Click!_ Shadow's inhibitor rings fell to the ground as he released them from his wrists. They clattered on the pavement as Shadow's mouth turned up in a wicked sneer. Sonic lunged, but Shadow was just too strong at his full power. He began to glow with a bright crimson aura that matched his wrathful spikes, and in a single punch, Sonic was knocked onto his back. Shadow wasn't done yet, though. He delivered a powerful blow to Sonic's ribcage and Sonic cringed in pain when Shadow's foot collided with his side. Shadow pulled his foot back a second time and was about to kick the helpless hero in his face, when Shadow remembered to control his fury. He took a few deep breaths, picked his inhibitor rings back up, clipped them back in place, and walked away. Sonic was left on the sidewalk. Police cars were starting to gather on the side of the road as people gasped when they got a clear look at him. Defeated by Shadow's pain and anger. Such a pitiful sight.


	2. Captured but Complete

The moon slowly began its ascent into the sky as the sun calmed into a slumber. Shadow was skating back to his meadow as he realized this. He needed to be alone again. When he reached the knocked over tree, he sat down on it's horizontal trunk and felt his mind wander again. "This is what happens when I try to be with society. I can't have friends, I can't be normal." The moon was nigh at this point, and he gazed into the sky. He could see the ARK as it orbited the Earth, and Shadow thought of his childhood. He didn't try to stop the flow of memories this time. He had decided that resisting was useless. He could see himself running through the long, metallic hallways, laughing as Maria chased him. He thought about his life now. Occasionally taking missions from AbrahamTower, the same commander who ordered the shutdown of the ARK. _Why did he take orders from this man? How could he accept this job if he couldn't ever forgive him?_

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a light moving through the sky. It looked like an airplane, but it was somehow different. Like a constant blue-green glow surrounding something more... triangle shaped than an airplane.

He stood up and squinted to get a better view. It moved across the sky slowly, then in a flash of light and a loud boom, it was gone. "Was that... a sonic boom?" Shadow wondered, "Why don't I know about this model of plane? Is it a government test run?" A million thoughts flew through his mind at once, but they were suddenly silenced when something grabbed him from behind. A hand went over his mouth and another around his waist, while two more grabbed his arms and two more his legs. He could see three cloaked figures carrying him. He bit the hand in front of his mouth as hard as he could, and the figure screamed. _A human scream, thank God._ Shadow thought to himself as he tasted blood. The thing pulled its hand away, but the finger was left in Shadow's mouth and he spit it out. He had bit it clean off! A sack was shoved over his head and something hit him. Hard. He fell unconscious.

The next thing Shadow knew, he could hear a sweet soprano voice calling out to him. It sounded like Maria. "Maria?" Shadow called groggily, "Is that you? Am I dead?"

"No, Shadow. You're fine! Just fine! Like I was! Like I am..." His eyes flickered open for a split second and he saw Maria's face, then he fell unconscious again.

When Shadow had enough strength to keep his eyes open, he looked around. He was in a white bed in a white room with white curtains over the windows. He reached to pull the white blankets off of himself, when he realized that his arms and legs were chained to the posts of the bed. "Hey!" He yelled, "Let me go or I swear I will kill you all, one by one!" He shouted, "I swear it! I swear it!"

Suddenly, cloaked figures began to enter the room. One whispered something to another, and it left, then entered again, followed by a flood of other cloaked figures. "What do you want from me!?" He screamed, "I have nothing to do with you people!"

"Oh, but you do!" One replied. It had a woman's voice. An older woman's, maybe fifty or sixty. "You're here for your own good. But before we explain, there's someone who's been _dying_ to meet you! Hahaha!"

Shadow rolled his eyes. Like _that_ hasn't been said before. Finally, the last cloaked figure entered the room. It was much shorter than the others, like it could be a mere child, or a teenager. Shadow wasn't sure, but he strained his eyes to get a look at it's face when a lock of blonde hair escaped the concealment of the cloak. With one swift movement, it pushed the cloak onto it's shoulders. Only, it wasn't an it. It was a _her_.

Shadow's eyes grew wide in shock. "Maria?"

"Shadow!" She smiled her innocent smile, showing her straight white teeth. Shadow smiled sincerely as well, his sharp teeth catching the bright light of the white room. Maria trifled through her robe until she pulled out a large bronze key, which she used to undo Shadow's locks. "Sorry," She apologized, "but we were worried you'd make a run for it." When she undid the last lock, Shadow captured her in an embrace. When they pulled away, he just stared into her cobalt eyes.

"I... I don't understand. At all!" He exclaimed, "You died, I saw you! And, you're still twelve! How...?"

"Well," She laughed, "I almost died. What GUN never released to society is that before they were able to take my grandfather to PrisonIsland, he managed to inject me with the vary gene that they miraculously gave you; immortality. In other words, he managed to save me by giving me some of Black Doom's DNA, just like he gave to you. Now I can't get sick, I can't age, and ultimately, I can't die."

"But, but, what about your Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome? It's a terminal disease!"

"Was." Maria corrected with a wag of her finger. Shadow only smiled wider, and they hugged again.

"Okay, but I still have so many questions!" Shadow complained.

"Ask away." Maria said cheerfully.

"Why are you in this weird spaceship, and why didn't you come see me, and..." He choked back a sob. _Why couldn't he see her for fifty years?_

"Well," She said thoughtfully, "...Let's take it one question at a time. You see, GUN thinks I'm dead. Society thinks I'm dead. What happened to my body? Nobody knows. That's how we want to keep it, because they still believe that they needed to kill everyone aboard the ARK, and in this case, they even went for me, the little girl. I needed to die because I had strong ties with you. I could tell the world about you, and scare people. So, as long as I'm presumed dead, I'm in no danger!"

"Okay." Said Shadow, "Then how about the spaceship?"

"Well, there was this group of people on Earth, kind of a Project Shadow fan club of sorts. A scientist had told his friends about you when everything was still top secret, and they got really interested. They knew about me, and were also interested. My grandfather was told about these people, and before they found him to take him to prison, he hid me with them. One had a friend in the military. That's how we got this cool spaceship! See, that's George over there. He's the one who got this. Say 'hi', George!"

Shadow turned to see a man in a cloak waving at him sheepishly, and shadow couldn't hide a smirk. It was kind of amusing, in a way, that all these people practically worshipped him. "So," He said, turning back to Maria, "Let me get this straight. You got saved, brought to these people, and then you stole a spaceship, and decided to live in space?"

"We hope to find a terrestrial planet one of these days." Maria responded, "But for now, we just live in here. The nice thing is, we don't have to stop off on Earth for fuel. We have a different type of power source."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, as if saying, _Tell me more_.

"I'll show it to you later. For now, do you have any more questions?"

"Uh, yeah. One more." He replied, "What's with the getup?"

Maria looked down at her strange cloak. The others' were black, but hers was a silvery color. "Uh, just a symbol of our organization, I guess. Like I said before, they uh, kinda worship us, so we get different types of cloaks. That reminds me, let's get you one!"

"Uh, sure." Shadow said, "It's cold in here anyway."

He sat on the bed as Maria left the room. When it was just him and the other figures, he stared up at them as they stared down at him. "What?" He asked.

One stepped forward with a pen and a pad of paper. "Can I get your autograph?"

"Uh... I guess so." Shadow took the supplies and shakily signed the paper. He was in shock about this whole thing. Not long ago, he was complaining about how his life was so empty and meaningless. Now, he felt like a hole that just couldn't be filled was filled again, and he felt so complete.


	3. Two Encounters with Chaos

Maria came back into the room with a silver cloak like hers. "Thanks." Shadow said as he took the clothing. He looked back up at all the staring humans. "Uh, do you mind?" They filed out of the room, and Shadow slipped the robes on over his body. He wondered if this was some sort of strange club that he wanted no part of, and he just hoped there wasn't an initiation.

He took a deep breath, then yelled, "You can come back in now."

Everyone raced into the room again. Oh boy. Just what Shadow likes. _Attention_. "Hey, I just want to say that this is nice and all, but I swear, I will take Maria and leave if you all smother me like this. I just can't live without my solitude, okay?" They all nodded.

"So," Maria said with excitement in her voice, "This is Margery." She motioned to the tall figure next to her. It was the same one that made the corny joke earlier. Shadow nodded his head to her in greeting. "And this is George, as you know." George and Margery threw their cloaks off their heads, and each one did so as Maria introduced them. "This is Eric, Clyde, Login, Priscilla, and Haley."

"Okay." Said Shadow. But, not being a people person, he quickly changed the subject. "Can I see that special power source now?"

Maria laughed. "Sure!"

When they got to the power room, it was small, with engines roaring and fans whirring here and there. Maria stepped up to a small glass container in the middle of the room and lifted the translucent lid. Shadow could see two huge glowing gems. One Blue and one white. "Chaos Emeralds!" He exclaimed, "No wonder this vessel is so impressive!"

"Yes, quite impressive it is." Maria agreed.

A few hours later, after doing a lot of catching up with Maria, Shadow went wandering through the ship for the restroom. He found himself hopelessly lost, though. He called out for someone to hear him, but nobody could. Suddenly, he realized that he could hear voices coming from around the corner. He peeked his head around and saw two people. It was Priscilla and Dr. Eggman! _How did he get in here?_ Shadow wondered.

"Hey!" He yelled as he stepped around the corner. "What're you doing here, Doctor?"

Eggman laughed. "That's a very good question Shadow, but I'm afraid I can't answer it." He turned to Priscilla.

"May I?" She asked.

"Please." The villain replied.

She walked up to Shadow and pulled something grey and shiny out of her robe. It's metallic blade caught the light and sparkled. It was a knife. Shadow stepped back as he readied his offensive position. He growled and flashed his razor sharp teeth at the menace. She came at him and they struck at the same time. He punched her in the gut as she forced the handle of her knife against his skull. They both fell, but Shadow didn't get back up.


	4. Romance and a Battle to the Death

When Shadow opened his eyes, he was in the same white bed in the same brightly lit white room with the same white curtains, only they were pulled back and he could see into space, and Maria sat on the edge of his bed. She smiled at him when he looked at her. "Hey, Sleepyhead! You poor thing, you must have been hit harder than we realized, because you passed out in the hallway! Priscilla brought you back. She's so nice, isn't she?"

Shadow felt his head and cursed at the pain. Priscilla had carefully hit him in the same spot as before, so he still only had one bruise. Only, now it was red with blood under his bandage. "Maria," He said, "Priscilla hit me."

"What? No she didn't, Silly!" Maria argued, "Well, she did." Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Back on Earth, but that was only so you would stop trying to struggle! You bit her middle finger off!"

Shadow thought about that for a second. Priscilla's robe covers her hands, and if he remembered correctly, she held the knife in her left hand, so he never did realize it was her. Did she want revenge? Why was she with the Doctor?

"Maria," He said again, "Priscilla hit me twice. That's why I passed out." Maria looked at him quizzically.

"Shadow, you were hit pretty hard..."

"It's true! I swear it! I promise you, Maria!"

"Okay, okay! Calm down!" He sat up, and she pushed him back down. "Get some rest. We can talk about this later. Okay?"

Shadow sighed, then said, "Fine."

"Good boy." Maria smiled as she leaned down, not leaving much space between their faces, "Everything's fine now. You're with me. I know you have a lot to take in today, so try to keep your mind at ease. These are good people." Shadow nodded slowly, then whispered,

"Don't ever leave me. Not like that again. Please?"

"Never again." She assured him, "I promise you."

There was a silence and they froze for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes. Maria's a gentle shade of sapphire, Shadow's a determined flame color. Maria closed her eyes, and she leaned in closer, _closer_...

"Hey there!" The cheerful voice rang through the room, startling Shadow and Maria, interrupting their moment.

"Oh, hi!" Maria greeted. Shadow looked up and moaned in annoyance. It was bad enough that they had been interrupted, but the interferer was Priscilla.

"What do _you_ want?" Shadow grumpily asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you were doing, of course! Don't worry, I forgive you about my hand. Just your very _presence_ has put me in a better mood!"

Clearly, Maria didn't sense the sarcasm, because she just kept smiling. "Shadow, is it okay if I leave you two alone? It's my job to check the engines."

"No!" Shadow yelled. "Please, I don't want to be in the company of such filth!"

"Shadow! You're hurting Priscilla's feelings!" Maria scolded, "Just look at her! I'm so sorry, Priscilla." She said, "Shadow's very confused right now."

"It's quite alright..." Priscilla looked at the ground and shifted her weight to one foot, then the other. She was a good actor when it came to body language.

_Convincing Maria to see the truth will be harder than I realized..._ Shadow thought to himself.

"I really need to go. See you two later." Maria called as she walked out of the room. Shadow watched in horror as the door closed, concealing him and his latest nemesis in a room by themselves. Shadow hurt and bleeding, Priscilla good as new. Except, of course, for the hand that Shadow still couldn't see.

"You're getting quite nosy, you know." She stated as she walked to his bedside. "That's going to be a problem."

"Why don't you just let me and Maria live our lives?" He asked, "I have much more important things to worry about." He sat his back against the headboard and stared up at her through the tension.

"Because," She explained, "I need you, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Why?" Shadow asked, his eyes burning with curiosity and hatred.

Instead of answering, Priscilla pushed her sleeve back, revealing a bandaged hand. Her middle finger appeared half as long as the others, the white stained with red where it covered the stump. She ripped the bloody fabric off and shoved her mangled finger in Shadow's face. "You. Did. This." She whispered, her voice quavering but hostile.

Shadow gritted his teeth. The gore didn't scare him. He had seen a bullet lodged in Maria's back, for Christ's sake. He was annoyed. "Get your disgusting flesh out of my face, you atrocious female!" She pulled away and slapped him in the face with her good hand.

Shadow sat there for a moment, dazed. Then he looked up at her and bared his malicious teeth. A low growl escaped his throat. Priscilla smirked at him. "Do you really think you stand a chance against me? You don't even understand why you were created. You're _pathetic_!"

Shadow jumped from the bed, but Priscilla dodged and ran out the door, laughing. Mocking him. Shadow hit the window and fell to the floor. He shook his head as he sat on the ground. He could feel his nose bleeding from being slapped. _For a woman, she's got a strong arm._ Shadow admitted to himself, _But I'm not done with her yet!_

Maria walked in the door and saw the aftermath of the fight. "Oh my God, Shadow! You need to be more careful! Priscilla told me you fell out of bed!"

"Ha." Shadow laughed sarcastically. "Not likely."

"Then what happened?" She asked.

"Well," Said Shadow, "you have to promise to believe me, okay?"

"Okay," Maria said in her soothing voice, "I promise I'll believe you." She picked him up and laid him on the bed. Then she grabbed a box of tissues from the end table next to his bed and handed it to him. "Tell me what happened."

"Okay," Shadow wiped the blood off of his face. "Priscilla and I started to argue, and she slapped me in the face. I lunged at her, but she evaded and fled the room. I swear, that's how it happened."  
Maria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "You don't believe me, do you?" Shadow asked. Maria opened her eyes, then whispered softly,

"I do."

Shadow tilted his head in shock. "Really?" Maria nodded.

"Priscilla's been acting a little strange lately. She's always asking for permission to see the Chaos Emeralds, but I'm the only one allowed in that room besides engineers who work there, so I believe you this time. It's just, all these people seemed so excited to see you. I didn't think any one of them would ever treat you that way. But don't worry. I'm here."

"And you'll never leave me." Shadow added.

"Never." Maria agreed. Once again, they closed their eyes, and leaned toward each other's faces. Time slowed down, and Shadow could hear his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. Their lips were hardly even an inch apart. Just a half-second more...

"Maria?" Margery's voice came flooding into the room and Maria sat up straight again.

"Yes?"

"I need you to reset computer number six in the control room. It's acting up again, and only you know the password, of course."

"Okay, I'll be right there." She smiled at Shadow and hurried out of the room with Margery.

"Come on!" Shadow muttered under his breath, "Every time!" He sat there for a moment afterwards, thinking. "Oh crap!" He exclaimed, "I never told Maria about Eggman! He was _here_!" He got out of bed and ran into the hallway. There was nobody in sight, and he still didn't know his way around the place. "Hey, anybody?" He called out to no avail. He decided to explore, but worried he'd get lost again, Shadow kept in mind that his room was number twenty-two. "Wow, what a huge spacecraft!" He said aloud, admiring the scene, it reminds me of the ARK, but it's smaller and mobile! How fascinating..."

"Talking to yourself, are you?" It was Priscilla's voice that came from behind him.

"Leave me alone, or I'll..."

"You'll what? Hurt me? Give it up! It's so obvious that I would win any fight!"

"No. I don't think so." Shadow replied, still facing the other way. "You've got a fatal flaw. You're a coward; you either run or knock me out. Either way, all you can do is escape."

"Oh?" Priscilla said, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes."

"Hedgehog, I'm getting very tired of you, so I'm just going to use you for my plan now. Sayonara. Hahaha!"

He heard rapid footsteps behind him, and turned just in time to deliver an agonizing punch to Priscilla's torso, knocking the breath out of her. She stumbled backward, and Shadow saw that she held the same blade as before. The corners of his mouth turned up into a half-smile.

Meanwhile, Priscilla struggled to catch her breath. She looked down at the floor for a split second and heard a _Click! Click!_ When she looked up slightly, she saw Shadow's inhibitor rings as their clatter to the ground echoed through the long, narrow hallway in which she and her opponent stood.

"No." She whispered, knowing her fate was in Shadow's hands now. She watched as he collected energy and glowed brighter by the second. In a last resort, She threw her knife. Shadow saw this coming and lunged at the same time, only being able to hope that the knife would miss him by a few inches.


	5. Eggman?

"There! That should do it!" Maria cheerfully stated as she stepped away from the computer.

"Thank you. I appreciate it!" Margery thanked.

Suddenly, high-pitched scream flowed through the hallway and into the room where Margery and Maria stood. They exchanged a quick glance of horror and ran toward the noise. When they found it, they saw the mangled and bloody body of Priscilla lying on the floor. Shadow knelt beside her on his knees, his soaked gloves pressing into his stomach.

"What happened?" Maria asked as she ran to Shadow. He didn't speak, just stared off into space. "Shadow?" She nudged his shoulder and he fell face-first into the puddle of blood forming beneath the two. Maria screamed, horrified. She rolled him onto his back and saw the knife in his stomach. "Oh my God! Shadow!" She began to sob, resting her head on his fluffy chest.

Soon, nurses began to file into the hallway, taking Shadow and Priscilla away on stretchers to the infirmary. Maria watched in terror as the nurses pulled the knife out of Shadow's ragged flesh and he gritted his teeth in pain. A whimper passed his lips and Maria continued sobbing at the thought of his death. When he was completely bandaged up, Maria sat by his side for an hour going on about how sorry she was. "Oh Shadow, none of this would have ever happened if I had just listened to you! Why do all of the best creatures have to die so quickly? It's not fair! She stood up and punched the wall. Not even leaving a dent, she moaned at the pain that rushed furiously into her hand. She was turning into Shadow. He had told her how he became so agonized with her death that he grew violent and short-tempered. _Shadow would feel horrible to see me this way._ She thought, _I can't punish him for being a hero!_

She sat there for another moment, and then it came to her. _I must avenge him!_ I must! She ran to the room where Priscilla was being held, and asked the doctors about her state. She was ashamed to notice the relief that filled her when they informed her that Priscilla had passed on. _Good._ She thought, _He finished this._

Maria decided to walk into the hallway and attempt to clear her head. When she got there, she went to the restroom to splash some water on her face, but she turned a corner and gasped at the sight of the one person she never expected to see. "Ivo?" She breathed, "Is that you?"

A huge and menacing man turned around to greet her. He was shocked to find a twelve-year-old girl that knew his name. "Maria? But, but, that's impossible! You're dead! And you should be in your sixties! And, how do you recognize me?"

"Ivo," She said, "There's only one person I know who would ever try to grow a mustache that huge!" She laughed nervously, "I mean, seriously! But, nevermind me, how did you get here?"

"Oh, uh, I was, uh..." Eggman rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I'm um, kind of an evil genius now..." Maria stood there in shock, staring at her half-brother.

"What?"

"Yeah, and, uh, I kind of came here to, uh, steal the Chaos Emeralds powering this ship and let it crash..."

"...Did you know I was here?"

"No, but... I knew Shadow was. I have robot spies everywhere. All I had to do was launch my own ship and climb aboard this one when I got close enough. It wasn't hard at all, really. You don't have many windows on this thing, and I just had to do it before you left the Earth's atmosphere."

After an awkward silence, Maria pointed toward an emergency escape pod, the model similar to the ones on the ARK. "Get. Out. Now."

"But, but..."

"NOW."

"Okay, I'm leaving! Priscilla's dead anyway. She was my best chance of getting those emeralds. I'll try again some other time. You see, I used her to get to the Chaos Emeralds, and I was hoping to get to Shadow through her, but he couldn't be convinced to join our side, so I ordered her to, well, kill him, but she died, so I was actually on my way to see if I could grab the emeralds and make a run for the escape pods when you caught me here, so, uh, yeah."

"NOW." Maria repeated. Shadow's half-dead, thanks to you. I never want to see you again."

"Okay, but why are you still twelve?"

"I'm immortal, okay? NOW LEAVE!"

Eggman hurried into the escape pod and Maria pulled down a lever to send him hurtling back to Earth. She couldn't believe that her cousin had gone so evil, but she had other things on her mind at this point. She needed Shadow alive. He was her only friend, and she had finally found him after fifty long years of separation. She wouldn't be able to take it if he died.

She ran back to the infirmary and watched Shadow rest motionlessly. George awkwardly shuffled into the room behind her.

"Hey Ms. Robotnik?" He asked, "If you and Shadow are immortal, never die, and immune to all diseases, why are you worried about him right now?"

"Because," Maria replied, "We can't die from natural causes, but we can still die if someone destroys our vital organs, or we lose a lot of blood, things like that. We can die, but we have to be manually killed, if you know what I mean.

"I see." Replied George, "I sure hope he's okay."

"Me too." Replied Maria, "Me too."

A few hours later, Maria was washing her hands in the restroom when a nurse came scrambling in to talk to her. "Shadow's awake! She enthused, "We think he's going to be alright after all!" Maria smiled widely, thanked the breathless nurse, and ran to the infirmary. She ran and ran and ran until she reached Shadow's room and saw his mangled self sitting up in that pale, emotionless bed. His very presence gave the whole room a sense of joy to it. He slowly managed to hold up his arms, beckoning for Maria to come into his arms. His fur was matted with blood and sweat, but all Maria saw was her best friend in the whole world, awake and alive. She flung herself onto the bed and instead of hugging him, she locked him in a big, wet, kiss right on the lips. His eyes shot open in surprise, but at the same time, Shadow couldn't believe this was finally happening. The chemistry between the two was so strong and passionate that he knew it was worth every second he had to wait. He pulled her closer and they continued to kiss. Happy, alive, and together.


	6. Epilogue

Margery came bursting into Shadow's bedroom yelling, "We found a terrestrial planet! We can live there peacefully! Did you hear me? A real-live terrestrial planet!" When she actually looked into the room, she realized it was empty.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Maria were making out in Maria's room. It didn't take them long at all to become a happy couple. When Margery finally found them, she explained the news.

When the spaceship landed, Everyone ran for the swaying green grass. There were fields and fields of white flowers, a light blue sky, oceans, and glittering lakes scattered all around. Shadow and Maria raced for the ground. It had been forever since Maria had seen the surface of a planet up close. She had always dreamed of going down to Earth, but she was there for only mere days before she was brought back into space. Oh, how she wanted to lay down in the grass and never get up! She and Shadow raced for the shade of a lone tree. They picked some sweet lavender fruits from its branches and bit into them as they sat down and leaned their backs against the tree's trunk.

"I missed you so much." Shadow admitted, "Three more days without you and I might've gone insane."

"Same here." Maria said, "I'm just so glad we were able to find you. And we're immortal, so we can spend the rest of our lives in each other's company. Just me and you. Building a civilization here, a family, and a happy life. One with our past behind us. One that's _perfect_.

"Nothing's perfect." Shadow argued. "For example, I have to abandon my purpose in life; to protect all humans on Earth."

Maria kissed him gently on the lips. "What difference does it make? You'll protect _these_ humans. Peaceful humans. Without war, and deadly diseases, and greed. Maybe you're right. Maybe nothing's perfect. But this is as close as it gets."

"You're right. I agree." Shadow replied with a warm smile.

The sun had been setting as they spoke, and now stars were starting to form in the night sky. Shadow got up and admired a nearby lake. He reached his hand out to point at the lake, but then a butterfly landed on his right index finger. He smiled and looked over at Maria, who giggled.

"Shadow," She said, "I love you."

Shadow couldn't have felt happier under any circumstances as he replied, "I love you too."


End file.
